VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Leo XIV encouraged international news agencies on Thursday to stand firm as a bulwark against the "ancient art of lying" and manipulation, as he strongly backed a free, independent and objective press.

History's first American pope called for imprisoned journalists to be released and said the work of journalists must never be considered a crime. Rather, journalism is a right and a pillar upholding "the edifice of our societies" that must be protected and defended, he said.

"If today we know what is happening in Gaza, Ukraine and every other land bloodied by bombs, we largely owe it to them," Leo said of journalists. "These extraordinary eyewitness accounts are the culmination of the daily efforts of countless people who work to ensure that information is not manipulated for ends that are contrary to truth and human dignity. "

Leo's comments came in a speech to executives of international news agencies belonging to MINDS International, a consortium of leading agencies including The Associated Press.

In his five months as pope, the Chicago-born Leo has spoken out strongly on the need to protect freedom of expression and the rights of journalists. In his first meeting with reporters right after his election, Leo called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the "precious gift of free speech and the press."

More recently, he insisted that journalism was "not only an act of justice, but a duty of all those who long for a solid and participatory democracy." In a letter to a crusading Peruvian journalist repeatedly sued for her work, Leo affirmed the freedom of the press was an "inalienable common good."

On Thursday, he strongly encouraged news agencies amid a double crisis they are facing, with economic pressures threatening their survival and consumers increasingly unable to distinguish truth from lies.

"I urge you: Never sell out your authority!" Leo said.

He quoted Hannah Arendt's "The Origins of Totalitarianism" in asserting that the world needs free and objective information. He cited her warning that "the ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction and the distinction between true and false no longer exist."

Leo said even with the challenges posed today by artificial intelligence, news agencies must stand firm.

"With your patient and rigorous work, you can act as a barrier against those who, through the ancient art of lying, seek to create divisions in order to rule by dividing," he said. "You can also be a bulwark of civility against the quicksand of approximation and post-truth."

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